Maria Nazarivna Yaremchuk (Ukrainian: Марія Назарівна Яремчук; born March 2, 1993, Chernivtsi, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter and producer. She was a finalist in the second season of «Holos Krainy», won third place and the Audience Choice Award at «New Wave 2012», and represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, where she finished sixth with «Tick-Tock». She is the daughter of Ukrainian singer Nazariy Yaremchuk.
In the first half of the 2010s, Maria Yaremchuk was one of the notable young performers on the Ukrainian pop scene. Her repertoire included «Тебе я знайду», «Tick-Tock», «До тебе», «Білою фарбою», «Ти в мені є», «До нестями» and «Назавжди». In 2018, she ended regular concert activity because of panic attacks that occurred before going onstage. After a long break, Yaremchuk released the self-written songs «Дорога Воїна», «Вона» and «Щит і Меч», and in 2024 she served as a producer of the documentary «Яремчук: Незрівнянний світ краси» and the album RE: Yaremchuk, both dedicated to her father’s legacy.
Childhood and family
Maria Yaremchuk was born on March 2, 1993, in Chernivtsi. Her father, Nazariy Yaremchuk, was one of the best-known Ukrainian pop singers of the 1970s–1990s, a member of the VIA «Смеричка» and performer of «Стожари», «Гай, зелений гай», «Родина», «Запроси мене у сни» and other works of Ukrainian popular music.
Nazariy Yaremchuk died in 1995, when his daughter was two years old. Maria has older half-brothers Dmytro and Nazariy from her father’s first marriage and an older half-sister, Vira, from her mother’s first marriage.
Music was present in her life from childhood. At the same time, the surname of her famous father gave her access to his cultural legacy while also creating the need to build an independent career of her own.
Education
In 2009, Maria graduated from Gymnasium No. 4 in Chernivtsi and entered the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Arts, where she studied pop vocals.
At the same time, she studied at the Faculty of History, Political Science and International Relations of Chernivtsi National University. By the time she participated in Eurovision, Yaremchuk had already completed her professional vocal education.
«Holos Krainy»
The first major stage of her public career came in 2012. Maria became a contestant on the second season of the television show «Голос країни. Нова історія» and joined Oleksandr Ponomariov’s team.
She reached the final alongside Pavlo Tabakov, Angelina Moniak and Nazar Savko. According to the audience vote, Yaremchuk finished in fourth place. Pavlo Tabakov won the season.
Participation in the television competition brought the singer her first broad audience and almost immediately led to her next international project.
«New Wave 2012»
In the summer of 2012, Maria represented Ukraine at the international young performers competition «New Wave» in Jūrmala.
She finished in third place and received the Audience Choice Award. The result consolidated the success she had achieved after «Holos Krainy» and effectively launched her independent pop career.
First singles
In autumn 2012, Yaremchuk released her first notable solo single, «Со мной опять», written by Konstantin Meladze and Andrey Franzuz. A music video directed by Sergey Tkachenko was made for the song.
Her next important release, «Тебе я знайду», appeared in 2013. Unlike her debut single, Maria wrote both the lyrics and music herself. The song was performed in Ukrainian and marked a more author-driven direction in her work.
First attempt to reach Eurovision
On December 23, 2012, Maria Yaremchuk took part in Ukraine’s national Eurovision selection for the first time. With her own English-language song «Imagine», she finished in fifth place.
Ukraine ultimately sent Zlata Ognevich to the 2013 contest with «Gravity». A year later, Yaremchuk returned to the national selection with different material.
Tick-Tock and victory in the National Selection
On December 21, 2013, Maria Yaremchuk won Ukraine’s National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with «Tick-Tock». She received the maximum 12 points from both the jury and the television audience.
Yaremchuk wrote the music for «Tick-Tock» herself; the lyrics were created jointly with Swedish songwriter Sandra Bjurman. Before the international contest, the song was reworked, with significant changes to the arrangement and parts of the lyrics.
Eurovision Song Contest 2014
The contest was held in Copenhagen. In the first semifinal, Maria finished fifth with 118 points and qualified for the final.
On May 10, 2014, she opened the final competition show. «Tick-Tock» received 113 points and finished sixth among 26 finalists. It remains one of Ukraine’s strongest Eurovision results of the 2010s before Jamala’s victory.
One of the most memorable elements of the performance was a large running-wheel construction with dancer Ihor Kuleshyn performing inside it. The staging became one of the most recognizable visual images of Eurovision 2014.
Career after Eurovision
After the contest, Yaremchuk continued releasing individual singles rather than moving toward a traditional album-based model.
In 2014, she released «Без тебя» and «Против ветра». In 2015, she released the self-written song «До тебе»; Maria wrote both the music and lyrics herself. The music video was directed by Radislav Lukin.
During this period, the singer gradually moved away from the predominantly Russian-language pop repertoire of her early years and increasingly recorded music in Ukrainian.
«Білою фарбою» and «В чистім полі»
In 2016, «Білою фарбою» and «В чистім полі» were released. The latter received a music video directed by Alan Badoev and continued the line of contemporary Ukrainian pop music with folkloric visual and melodic associations.
During the same period, Maria performed the joint composition «Недозволена» with Oleksandr Ponomariov. Later rumors about a personal relationship between the artists were never officially confirmed and have no relevance to the singer’s creative biography.
«Ти в мені є»
On April 5, 2017, one of Yaremchuk’s most notable late-period singles, «Ти в мені є», was released.
The music video was directed by Alan Badoev. At the M1 Music Awards, the work received professional awards for directing, cinematography and editing.
In 2017, the single «До нестями» was also released, and Maria appeared on Ivan NAVI’s song «Хімія».
Назавжди
On March 2, 2018, her 25th birthday, Yaremchuk released «Назавжди». The music and lyrics were written by Mykhailo Klymenko, while Vlad Palagin served as sound producer.
Sonically, the song differed noticeably from the singer’s earlier mainstream pop work and was built around a combination of alternative R&B and soul.
«Легенда Карпат»
That same year, Maria also tried acting in a feature film. She played one of the leading roles in the historical adventure film «Легенда Карпат», directed by Serhiy Skobun.
Yaremchuk portrayed Marichka Dzvinka, the beloved of Oleksa Dovbush, played by Valeriy Kharchyshyn, frontman of «Друга ріка». The film was released in Ukrainian cinemas on March 29, 2018.
Leaving the stage
In spring 2018, Maria Yaremchuk unexpectedly announced that she was ending regular concert activity.
The decision was not connected with a lack of material or loss of interest in music. The singer publicly explained that for around a year and a half she had been experiencing serious psychological discomfort before concerts: going onstage was accompanied by panic attacks and intense fear. She sought professional help and eventually decided to stop a career model built around constant live performances.
After that, Yaremchuk virtually disappeared from celebrity media coverage and stopped appearing regularly on television and in concert.
Return with self-written songs in 2022
However, she did not abandon music completely. After the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Maria began publishing her own works again.
In March 2022, «Дорога Воїна» was released. Yaremchuk wrote both the lyrics and music herself, while Vitaliy Telezyn served as sound producer. The song had originally been conceived as a personal story about an inner struggle for freedom, but after the outbreak of the war it acquired a broader national context.
In April of the same year, the short single «Вона» was officially released.
Return to the Eurovision stage
On May 11, 2023, Maria Yaremchuk performed on a major international stage for the first time in five years. She appeared in the interval act of the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, which the United Kingdom hosted on behalf of Ukraine.
In the Music Unites Generations segment, Yaremchuk performed a fragment of her father’s song «Родина» in a modern arrangement. Rapper OTOY and Ukraine’s Junior Eurovision 2022 representative Zlata Dziunka also took part in the performance. Works by Myroslav Skoryk and other Ukrainian composers were incorporated into the musical arrangement.
«Щит і Меч»
Two weeks after her performance in Liverpool, Maria released her first full solo single in several years, «Щит і Меч».
Yaremchuk had written the song around 2018. Maria Yaremchuk is credited as the author of both lyrics and music; she worked on the sound with Vitaliy Telezyn and Studio 211. The release took place on May 26, 2023.
The release did not, however, mean a return to her previous concert schedule. Yaremchuk continued to choose individual projects and appeared in public only rarely.
The legacy of Nazariy Yaremchuk
One of the main directions of her work after returning became the preservation and reinterpretation of her father’s artistic legacy.
Maria initiated the documentary «Яремчук: Незрівнянний світ краси», dedicated to the life and career of Nazariy Yaremchuk. The film was directed by Artem Hryhorian, with Maria Yaremchuk and Maksym Serdiuk serving as producers.
The film used family archives, diaries, letters, documentary footage and recollections from people who had worked with Nazariy Yaremchuk. Its festival premiere took place in June 2024 at Mykolaichuk OPEN in Chernivtsi; on August 8, 2024, the film received a wide theatrical release in Ukraine.
The documentary achieved an exceptional audience result for Ukrainian nonfiction cinema and became one of the most successful national documentary releases of recent years.
RE: Yaremchuk
Alongside the film, Maria produced the musical project RE: Yaremchuk, an album of contemporary interpretations of songs from her father’s repertoire.
The recording featured Jamala, Pianoбой, «Друга ріка», KAZKA, Dantes, O.TORVALD, Tember Blanche, Ivan NAVI, ADAM, Balsam and other Ukrainian artists.
The album included new versions of «Усміхнися мені», «Два перстені», «Стожари», «Водограй», «Гай, зелений гай», «Запроси мене у сни», «Квітка Розмарія» and other works. Maria Yaremchuk described the project’s goal as returning Nazariy Yaremchuk’s music to the contemporary cultural context and introducing it to a younger audience.
Songwriter
Maria Yaremchuk did not limit herself to the role of vocalist. Songwriting became part of her work at an early stage of her career.
She independently wrote «Imagine» and «Тебе я знайду», participated in the creation of «Tick-Tock», and is the author of «До тебе», «Против ветра», «Дорога Воїна» and «Щит і Меч».
This aspect of her work became especially noticeable after 2018: her rare new releases became more personal and almost completely ceased to depend on the standard model of the commercial pop industry.
Musical style
Yaremchuk’s early repertoire belonged to the field of contemporary mainstream pop. «Со мной опять» and the Eurovision song «Tick-Tock» were built around large radio-friendly choruses and a striking stage image.
Over time, her music featured more Ukrainian-language material and more songs of her own authorship. «Тебе я знайду» used elements of folkloric imagery, «До тебе» developed a lyrical pop direction, while «Назавжди» moved toward alternative R&B and soul.
«Дорога Воїна» and «Щит і Меч» belong to another stage entirely: here Yaremchuk is responsible for both lyrics and music, and the songs are built less around pop spectacle than around personal expression.
Personal life
Throughout her career, Maria Yaremchuk rarely discussed her private life, and after leaving the stage she became even more withdrawn from public attention.
In 2024, she confirmed that she had become a mother for the first time and had given birth to a son. The singer has not publicly disclosed the identity of the child’s father. At the same time, she directly denied media claims that Oleksandr Ponomariov was the father.
After the birth of her child, Yaremchuk did not announce a return to regular touring and continued to lead a largely private life.
Selected discography
- «Со мной опять» — 2012
- «Imagine» — 2012
- «Тебе я знайду» — 2013
- «Tick-Tock» — 2014
- «Против ветра» — 2014
- «До тебе» — 2015
- «Білою фарбою» — 2016
- «В чистім полі» — 2016
- «Ти в мені є» — 2017
- «До нестями» — 2017
- «Назавжди» — 2018
- «Дай любов» — 2018
- «Дорога Воїна» — 2022
- «Вона» — 2022
- «Щит і Меч» — 2023
As of 2026, Maria Yaremchuk has not released a full-length solo studio album: her main original discography consists of individual singles. Digital services also carry later remixes and reissues of her early material.
Maria Yaremchuk today
Maria Yaremchuk’s career turned out to be considerably less linear than her rapid success in the early 2010s might have suggested. Within just a few years, she went from a television vocal competition to sixth place at Eurovision, before consciously stepping away from constant live performance at a point when she could have continued along a conventional pop-career path.
Her return was not an attempt to restore her former schedule. The self-written songs of 2022–2023, her performance in Liverpool, the film «Яремчук: Незрівнянний світ краси» and the album RE: Yaremchuk marked a different format of work — occasional personal releases and projects connected with Ukrainian musical culture and the legacy of Nazariy Yaremchuk.
